With the working stiffs, the people who schlep us from event to event, build our platforms for success, clean up our mess.

They are the ones who hang the banners, but whose names never sway above the crowd.

Many of their names, belong up there, champions in what they do, but if I had the key to the auditorium, but if I had the ladder, if I had the wire I would hang a workers banner, and on it, would be one name…

…PeeWee.

I applauded Chris Lane for his Bassmaster Classic win, and for all the other wins that will come his way.

PeeWee showed me that being gentle and compassionate is not a sign of weakness, but strength, you need to be strong, to be gentle.

Inner strength is the muscle we need to build, let free the loving, caring human being inside you.

You are, what you are, be you.

PeeWee, above all, you showed me, showed all backstage this,

never take yourself to seriously,

but take seriously what it is you do.

Which is the soul, of the last leaf on the tree.

“…showed me nightmares…”

Then came regular season of B.A.S.S. 2012, and with it a poolside talk, and nightmare.

At the Bassmaster Classic Elite Angler Britt Myers came up to me and told me how “ready” he was for this season to begin, “it is going to be my year,” he said, or something to that effect it was awhile ago and I’m to lazy to dig around for my notes.

We made plans to get together and talk, and do a story about it. Those plans came together at one of the first events of the year, at “Big Show” Terry Scroggins home.

Never take your talent for granted…when you believe you have arrived, you will soon be gone.

You don’t become something, you are already something.

Excite yourself.

It is on the edge, where living happens, life is in the middle, but zest, my young friend, is out there on the edge.

And when you conqueror the edge, you will have the soul of the last leaf, on the tree.

“…showed me light out of the tunnel

when there was darkness all around instead…”

Of all the stories.

Of all the interviews.

Of all the people.

Of all the places.

It is the Central Open in Branson, Missouri, on Table Rock Lake that I will remember the most from B.A.S.S. 2012.

I will never forget all the destruction from the tornado that rocked Branson a few weeks before we got there:

And I will never forget, a quiet young man, Chad Brekke…and the Purple Heart he wore on his hat while he fished the tournament.

Never…accept…limitations.

Never listen to those who want to limit you.

Life, is a knockdown drawn out fight.

This young man, a medic, a front line medic, went to war for us, went to war to help others on the battlefield.

And got blown up.

How fragile we, that anger happens.

How fragile we, that violence overcomes us.

Showed me.

This gentle, fragile young man, harbors within, the demons we unleash on each other.

This gentle, fragile young man, trapped in a wounded shell.

Every person on this planet is the same, we are all humans here, but we are also, all different. Different is at our core. It was Chad, who in spite of his physical and mental wounds showed me that we need to respect difference, need to invent communality, between us all.

That any day without zest, zest for family, zest for faith, zest for life, any day without that zest, is a lost day.

Both Shaw and Paul have showed me that never be happy with living life in the middle, be provocative, curious, passionate about what it is you do.

Discover…life.

Learn…to do.

Do, stuff.

Cherish.

Think, deep, thoughts.

But above all, laugh.

Laugh with your loved ones.

Laugh at your roommates.

Wake up smiling, and you will know why the last leaf, hangs on.

“…put my hands across the table…”

Judgment, will not be on what we have taken in our life, but what it is we have given during our lives.

To serve, instead of being served. We are put here to share, and to care.

Showed me.

To serve…at the last event I was at, The B.A.S.S. Federation Nation Championship, a young soldier/angler, Mark Pierce, brought with him two American Flags that had flown in Afghanistan and he gave the flags to two employees of B.A.S.S.

Both of whom were taken back by the gift.

Mark went on to qualify for the Bassmaster Classic and will be fishing it in 2013.

But I ask of Jon, of Tyler, the two people who got the flag gift, to do me a favor, bring with them the flags to Grand Lake, Oklahoma, bring with them the flags to the Classic arena in Tulsa, and hang them somewhere.

Because without those flags, because without those men and women soldiers who unfurl and hang them, hang them for democracy, hang them because they serve instead of being served…without them THERE WOULD BE NO CLASSIC.

Jon…Tyler…hang those flags in that arena…for freedom…and for those out there who protect our freedom.

Hang them for that gift those men and women in the armed forces…give us all.

Freedom, found in the soul of the last leaf, that refuses to let go.

“…gave me knowledge of myself…”

Showed me.

Myself.

B.A.S.S. 2012, showed me…me.

176 days on the road.

Thousands of miles.

Thousands of faces.

Showed me.

This.

In the long run, being decent wins.

You may not know it by watching the news or reading headlines, but if you leave your home for 176 days, drive all over this land of ours, see America up close, the people of it, not the P.R. of it…we are a nation of decent folks.

Folks, who given a chance, by and on their own without any government doings, will do the right thing.

Showed me.

That the only thing I’m an expert in…is myself.

And that more, less stuff, leads to happiness. Simplicity, makes room for the imagination…personal growth is in the space between the words.

The beauty is not in what I write…but in how it makes you think…you being the expert, in you.

Showed me.

The Elite anglers.

The Opens anglers.

The Federation Nation members.

And you the fans,

showed me this,

Love something.

Open your heart, and the universe will show you the way. To love.

B.A.S.S. 2012…season in the books.

Season in my heart.

To you, all of you out there who ain’t me.

Meaning all those who I’ve come across this season, all of those who I have connected with, all of those who have touched my heart, know this, it is you who have,

showed me,

this.

Live the way you want others to live.

Find your own inner peace, if everyone finds the peace within them, then, and only then, will peace come to the world.